Skies of Arcadia: Heroes
by sorathecrow
Summary: Vyse and Aika knew this was an important raid, but neither of them knew the impact it would have on their destinies-and that of the entire world…
1. Fallen Angel

**_Author's Note:_**_ Well, I hope you enjoy the first chapter! It was fun writing it, and I hope its fun to read too! This is, obviously, a fanfic, but I want it to be something you can read and understand and enjoy without necessarily having played the game before. If there's terminology I don't have time in the main story to explain immediately, I'll post a little explanation after each chapter that will hopefully explain things clearly. This thing has caused me no end of trouble, and the formatting never seems to translate correctly onto the web, so forgive any mistakes that may appear. In fact, please point them out. I try to bug sweep everything, but its a big post..._

**_Rated: T _**_for violence, suggestive themes, mild gore, language, loqua reference_

**_Disclaimer:_**_ Obviously, I don't own skies of arcadia, and I neither speak for them, nor make money off of this. How could you possibly think I do? Why do people even bother writing these anyway? This is a work of parody, that I hope you will find amusing._

**Prologue: **Fallen Angel

Admiral Alfonso sighed dramatically and slumped in his chair. It was dark where he sat in the bridge of the air-battleship he commanded. Most of the lights inside and outside of the ship had been turned off, and the engine idled. Aside from the occasional creak from the metal ship or a squeak as a soldier's metal plate armor rubbed together, it was silent. It was driving the snobbish young man insane.

"How much longer must I patrol this backwater place?" He complained. "It has been two weeks and we have not seen any sign of a silver ship. Blast Glacian and that mad Vice Captain of his! The First Admiral of the Mid Ocean Fleet should not be forced to do such grunt work as patrol."

Yes, believe it or not, this aristocratic, blond haired young man with haughty eyes and a proud tongue really was an Admiral. An Admiral of the Valuan Imperial Armada, in fact. He was given the command because of his noble blood-unprepared for the position though he was. He was thoroughly, unbelievably spoiled, and had gotten it into his head at some point that the world owed him something. He had the utmost contempt for anyone not of noble blood, and treated the people under his authority as sub-human and disposable. Needless to say, he didn't have many friends on this particular ship.

The much bemoaned assignment: patrolling the Mid Ocean for any signs of a silver ship that could appear in the area within the next few weeks. Normally, Alfonso would simply delegate the task to one of his men to carry out, but the Lord Galcian himself had ordered him to oversee the job personally. Thus Admiral Alfonso was forced to do this 'menial task' (as he would call it) himself.

"What's worse is, the only people here are either common merchants passing through on their way to Sailor's Island, or savage air pirates-"

"Admiral Alfonso!" The Vice Captain interrupted, rushing up to Alfonso's side. Ignoring Alfonso's annoyed glare, he saluted hastily and continued: "We have spotted the Silvite's ship!"

"Wh-what? Really?" Alfonso asked incredulously. He hadn't really expected to find anything. In the back of his mind he had wondered if Galcian had only given him the job to get him out of the way. "Well, it's about time." He said, recovering quickly.

"What are your orders, sir?"

"Uh…oh, right, right! Ahem- get us in range and prepare to fire the concussion shells," Alfonso said. "But remember, Lord Galcian and the Empress want the pilot alive."

"Yes sir!" The Vice Captain turned and barked orders to the crew at the controls of the ship, and they, in turn relayed the orders through the intercom.

As if a switch had been flicked, energy returned to the ship. Soldiers dashed around the bridge and the engine revved to life underneath Alfonso's feet. Lights flickered on overhead in the bridge as blinding white light simultaneously shone from the search lights on the outside of the ship.

The lights of the ship alerted the pilot of the one-person vessel. It tried to veer away to the northeast as the Valuan vessel began to pursue, but the ambushers were already within range.

Concussion shells rocked the silver ship, knocking the pilot unconscious and nullifying the power of whatever moonstones were powering the ship. The Valuan ship lumbered to a stop beside the other smoking vessel and grappling hooks flew through the gap between them, dragging the paralyzed ship close.

"We have retrieved the pilot, sir," the Vice Captain said.

"Excelle-"

"One thing, sir-"

"What?" Alfonso asked.

"Sir… The pilot is an unarmed girl. Hardly older then sixteen years," the soldier said.

"Hmm? That's odd- a girl sailing alone at night? On a mission that interests even the Lord of the Imperial Armada?" Alfonso wondered aloud. "These people that sent her aren't the brightest chaps, are they. Bring her here."

"Yessir."

Alfonso could hardly keep himself from dancing a merry jig in front of all his officers. He settled for rubbing his hands together and giggling quietly in greedy anticipation.

"Once the Empress hears of my noble deeds here, she's sure to be very pleased. I could be given a new flagship….perhaps even a promotion!"

A soldier cried out, interrupting Alfonso's daydreaming.

"Ship spotted off the port side, coming down out of the clouds!"

The vessel jerked under an impact from the left, making Admiral Alfonso lose his footing and topple to the floor.

"Wh-wh-wh-what?" He sputtered from his spot on the floor. "Who would dare attack a vessel of the Imperial Armada?"

"Their ship bears the standard of the Blue Rogues, sir!"

o-o-o-o

From his perch in the crow's nest, Vyse watched the unsuspecting Valuan ship. The wind-powered Blue Rogue ship the Albatross, lights doused, had easily crept within a few miles of the Valuan ship without attracting any attention. Now, using a bank of slow-moving clouds for cover, they waited for the opportunity to pounce. Any second now the signal to attack would go out. He gripped the wooden rim of the basket, drumming his fingers impatiently.

Valua had always kept up a minor military presence in the Mid Ocean, if only to back up its claims on the area, but due to the low amount of taxable traffic in the region and frequent Blue Rogue attacks, the Valuans usually stayed out of the way. In the last few weeks, however, the Armada had stepped up its patrols—battleships could be seen flying the Mid Ocean skies at all times of day. The Blue Rogues—freedom-loving pirates who already took every opportunity to hassle the Valuans whenever they could—naturally didn't take this invasion of their privacy well. They had already held up a couple of minor frigates, but all along they had their eyes on a much bigger mark—a battleship. And not just any battleship- the battleship of the Admiral of the 1st Ocean Fleet. If this raid was successful, it would permanently cement the Blue Rogues' dominance over the region, as well as add a substantial amount of wealth and prestige to their name. Vyse drummed his fingers a little bit faster.

o-o-o-o

A gunshot shattered Vyse's thoughts—The signal!

The Albatross's back-up engines roared and the ship dived steeply. Before the Valuan battleship could even react, the pirate ship's port side was rubbing up against it, cutting off immediate action.

Ignoring the tow ropes that were being cast onto the other ship, preventing it from peeling off and giving the pirates a bridge across, Vyse opted to simply jump from the basket down to the deck of the other ship. Despite the heavy landing, Vyse recovered swiftly and drew his two cutlasses in time to meet the first of the Imperial defense that began to pour out onto the deck.

"Hey! My name's Vyse. I'm a Blue Rogue, and soon, my friends and I will be relieving you of your valuable," Vyse said, bowing jauntily.

"Insolent whelp!" A bigger soldier said. He hefted his shortsword and approached Vyse. "I'll silence—" The soldier himself was silenced by a heavy boomerang caving in his oversized helmet. He tottered back a few steps, then tripped-unconscious.

A teenage girl with fiery hair jumped the small gap between the ships and caught the boomerang as she landed. "How could you leave me behind, Vyse? I can't let you go and have all the fun!" She glanced at the stunned soldiers as if noticing them for the first time. "Oh—hiya! My name's Aika, and we're robbing you!" The girl's childish greeting instantly negated any fear the soldiers might have had from her initial devastating display.

"Ha! Air-pirate scum! Let's teach these kids a lesson!" The soldiers yelled in unison and leapt at the duo. The group was tightly packed, making maneuvering a challenge—Vyse and Aika dispatched two soldiers, but soon, their attention was occupied with just fending off the sword thrusts from all sides. Vyse brought his right-hand cutlass up around just in time to intercept the sweep of a shortsword, but before he could retaliate with his other blade, he had to block an attack on the other side. Nearby, Aika was having the same difficulties. The circle of soldiers tightened, forcing Aika and Vyse back-to-back. The two shared a quick glance and Aika wordlessly started preparing a Pyri spell to hopefully clear the ranks a little, the red-tinged metal of her boomerang glowing brighter.

A soldier chuckled and brandished his weapon at her. "Don't even try it. We'll kill you before you can chant the first word. Ha! What can the two of you hope to do against the five of us?" The soldier drew his sword back for a killing thrust.

Blam! A gunshot rang out and the soldier jerked violently, dropping to the ground like a stone.

"That's funny, I only see four of you," a deep voice deadpanned.

"Good timing, Dad!" Vyse said, turning back towards the ship.

The man that stood on the deck of the other ship cocked his pistol, keeping it trained on the other soldiers in the circle. Guns were a very recent invention, and only a few elite soldiers were even trained in their use yet. While they were unbelievably powerful, despite the Empire's mounting efforts to devise an efficient way to manufacture them, they were still very expensive to produce. Such a rare weapon made the man look even more impressive. Along with his neatly combed brown hair, trimmed beard, and blue vest, the man hardly fit the image of a rowdy pirate.

"Go on, you two," he said, his steely blue eyes never wandering from his targets. "We'll take care of these guys. Make your way to the bridge and shut down the engines,"

"Okay, Dad-"

"And Vyse…" the man added dryly. "How many times do I have to tell you? When we are sailing, call me 'Captain Dyne' or 'sir', not 'Dad', is that clear?"

"Aye aye, Captain," Vyse chuckled. He turned to Aika and grinned. "Now, shall we pay a visit to the owner of this fine vessel?"

"Let's go!" Aika said, punching the air with her fist as she skipped past the soldiers.

"Hey, wait for me!" Vyse exclaimed, following her into the heart of the ship.

o-o-o-o

"How dull! Valuans have no taste in design," Aika declared as she jogged in front of Vyse through a hallway in the Valuan ship.

Everything in the ship was purely practical. The walls and ceiling were a uniform steel grey, with exposed metal beams at precise intervals. Emergency lights shone here and there, suffusing the air with a red glow.

The hallway opened into a large, two-story room. Stairs at the opposite side of the room led up to a walkway that looked down on the floor below.

The two made it halfway to the stairs when a voice behind them said: "Well…Well… It seems Air Pirates have decided to…infest my ship."

A young man with blond hair and a silky white jacket leered down at them from the walkway above them. A soldier with an unconscious girl slung over his shoulder stood just behind him.

"I am Alfonso, cherished son of Valua's most distinguished family, and an Admiral of the Imperial Armada," he continued haughtily, flicking his hair. "Normally, lowlifes such as yourselves would never have the opportunity to bask in such greatness. Consider yourself fortuna—"

"Yeah, right…" Vyse cut in, asking, "Who's the girl? I never thought someone of your…stature would stoop to kidnapping."

"Scum like you would not understand the ways of the Valuan Empire," Alfonso snapped his fingers. "I cannot waste my time dealing with you." A group of five soldiers came out of the door behind him. "Dispose of them," he ordered.

Without hesitation, the soldiers jumped down from the upper level, landing in front of the two Rogues. As soon as they hit the ground, they whipped out short, yellow batons and began chanting slowly. It was a suicidal move that left them open to attacks in the mean time—they probably hoped that they would win by sheer numbers alone.

"Aika!" Vyse exclaimed. "They must be Yellow mages! We gotta take 'em out before they finish chanting!"

"Okay!"

Vyse hit one in the gut with the hilt of his cutlass, following it up with a rap on the back of the head.

Since the soldiers were to close for Aika to throw her boomerang she was forced to wield it like club. She swung it in a fearsome arc, clipping one man and sending him to dreamland, and possibly breaking another mage's ribs.

They could not move fast enough, though. The last two mages thundered "Electri!"

Vyse dived towards the mages, hitting the ground just as two brilliant lightning bolts arced from their batons. A bolt flashed over his head, narrowly missing him. With a quick stab, he dispatched the mage nearest him.

The attack caught Aika off-guard. She took the attack straight in her back. With a small grunt she dropped to the ground, falling over the soldier that she had just knocked out.

The man stood triumphantly over the girl, readying another spell to finish her off. The mage made the same unfortunate mistake as Aika, though: he turned his back on one of his opponents.

"Nobody hurts my FRIENDS!" Vyse shouted, bringing both of his cutlasses down to cleave the man's helmet wide open. The soldier fell, residual energy still trailing from his baton.

Vyse kneeled and shook Aika gently. She moaned, but did not wake up. Her breathing was ragged and her pulse was thready—not good.

"Come on, Aika. Now is not the time to be taking a nap," Vyse whispered. "Now…Let's try this." He dug a Sacri Crystal from a pouch at his side. Putting the fragile crystal in her hand, he curled her fingers around it and squeezed firmly. A vibrant green glow poured out of her fist, quickly enveloping her whole body, and then disappearing just as rapidly. With it went all of the minor cuts and scratches that were visible on her skin, indicating the healing light of the Green Moon imbued in the crystal had done its job. Almost immediately she bolted up into a sitting position and tried to gauge the situation. When she realized there were no more enemies at the moment she sighed and relaxed a little bit. "Thanks for the save, Vyse," Aika said with an embarrassed smile. "I got caught off guard there."

"No problem—hup, there ya go," Vyse said, helping Aika get back up on her feet at the same time. "Alfonso must have slipped out while we were occupied."

"That means we have no time to lose!" Aika said as she trotted to the stairway. "We can't just sit by and let that creep get away with kidnapping!"

They quickly scaled the stairs and made their way to the door that Alfonso had exited from.

The door was made of heavy steel and was locked from the other side.

"No good—its locked—" Vyse began.

"Move aside, Vyse," Aika said. Her hand was raised, palm facing the door.

He stared for a moment, then his eyes widened in realization of what she was planning to do. He plugged his ears and sidled a healthy distance away from the door. "Just don't overdo—"

"Moons, give me strength!" Aika interrupted. With a bright flash and a sound almost like a thunderclap, a fireball buckled the steel door like tin and sent it flying down the corridor. The recoil from the blast threw Aika to the ground a few yards away. Her arm was covered in soot and her face was streaked with it as well, but she was otherwise unhurt. Vyse had backed far enough away from the point of impact that he had been unfazed by the blast. He dusted the coating of soot off his clothes, ruefully wondering how long the gunpowder smell would cling to them. He looked to Aika, already skipping cheerfully through the burnt-out doorway. "You know, you're really terrifying sometimes…"

"Ahahaha!" Aika laughed, taking it in stride. "What are you doing, Vyse? We don't have time to stand around! Hurry up!"

The hallway ended in a small room stacked with metal crates. A heavy steel door even more secure-looking than the last one took up most of the far wall. Indeed, it looked more like it belonged in a bank vault than a battleship.

"Sigh…not another one," Vyse said.

"I can…"

Vyse shook his head before she could offer what he knew was coming. "You'd destroy the ship itself before you could blow this one off its hinges.

"Let's think about this logically—pirates have overrun his ship, and the battle seems lost. What do you think he'd do?"

"Probably make for the lifeboats…" Aika mused.

"Most likely. We just need to find another route to the garage where they're usually kept. A big warship like this must have more than one route for maintenance crews and such…"

"Hmm…" Aika and Vyse looked around the room. "There!" Aika pointed at the opening of what appeared to be a side passage partially hidden by a stack of crates. The passage went off to the right of the steel door, but it was the only chance the duo had.

"It's worth a shot…" Vyse said, going over to help her move the crates.

o-o-o-o

"The hangar door is open, the weather is fair, and the life-boat is ready for launch, sir. The preparations for your escape are complete," the Vice Captain reported, saluting Alfonso.

When the earlier fight had turned in the favor of the two Rogues, Alfonso and his Vice Captain discreetly exited the room and made their way to his personal safe-room behind a heavy steel door, which also had a private entrance to the hangar where his lifeboat was stored. The expansive hangar took most of the back end of the ship, and had a large draw-bridge door that now opened the whole back wall to the morning sunrise and provided a runway ramp for the lifeboat when it was ready to lift off. The engine of the lifeboat in question purred quietly as it hovered in place.

The hostage was left, still unconscious, in a corner of the hangar by the maintenance door, largely forgotten during the preparations.

"Excellent," Alfonso replied, turning from where he had been casually polishing his yellow moonstone-imbued rapier. "My preparations are complete as well…"

"Uh…What preparations…sir?"

"Preparations—" Alfonso flicked his sword-tip to the Vice Captain's chest. "To dispose of a traitor!"

"Wha-wh-what do you mean, sir?" The man exclaimed, unconsciously backing towards the edge of the hangar door. If it had been a fair fight, the soldier could have easily over-powered the young noble, but the shock and confusion from the out-of-the-blue accusation made it impossible for him to react.

"The Empress will not take my deserting ship in good humor. I need a scapegoat, and you will do quite nicely," Alfonso said. He chuckled to himself as if it was some grand scheme, slowly backing the Vice Captain up with light pressure from his rapier as he spoke. "Now, if you'll excuse me?" He lightly prodded the man again with his sword, making him jump back—and tumble off the runway, head over heels into the Deep Sky far below.

"Nooo!" The man cried out as he fell. Alfonso leaned slightly over the edge to watch him fall, sheathing his sword again as he planned his excuse.

"But, Your Majesty, when the air-pirates attacked, my own Vice Captain turned my men against me. It was all I could do to dispose of the traitor myself before I escaped," Alfonso giggled like a child at this. "Heh heh heh. Even in death, he serves me well."

"First kidnapping, and now killing your own man in cold blood?"

Alfonso jumped in surprise at the new voice, nearly falling off the edge himself.

Vyse stood in the corner of the hangar in front of the hostage, weapons drawn. Aika was kneeling down behind him, checking the white-clothed girl's condition.

"Draw your blade, Alfonso," Vyse challenged.

"You two again? You are persistent for Rogues," Alfonso sneered. "Fine, if you want my ship so badly, take it. I can always ask for another one."

"We'll take the girl while we're at it," Vyse added. "You Valuans can't have anything good planned for her." He shifted into a fighting stance. "Now, prepare yourself! Don't try and get out of fighting me."

"Feh—" Alfonso scoffed. "You are not worth the effort. If you are so desperate to fight something, why don't you test your skills against my personal war beast? Antonio~?"

Vyse and Aika followed Alfonso's gaze over to a pair of heavy double doors. The doors shuddered and bulged outward as if hit by twin battering rams side-by-side. With the second impact, the beast burst through, sending the mangled doors flying apart.

It resembled a bull in shape, but its skin was rough like a rhino's. The creature's most prominent features were two enormous horns that, at their bases, you wouldn't even be able to wrap your arms around—not attached to its head, but on either side of it on its body.

"Antonio…" Alfonso purred. "Trample these pests, and make their deaths as painful as possible."

"Looks like we got no choice," Vyse said, glancing at Aika.

She gulped and nodded.

The beast turned towards them and lowered its head as if it was preparing to charge.

"Maybe if we use magic on it from a distance," Vyse was interrupted by the distinct crackle of electricity.

The beast's horns began to spark and glow with yellow energy.

"I don't like the looks of this…" Aika said warily.

The monster jerked forward.

Vyse dived to the left, pulling Aika down with him. In the next instant twin lightning bolts arced over their heads. The monster tried to follow it up with a charge, but Aika cast Pyri on the beast, knocking it back temporarily. It reeled back from the combined shock of intense heat and light. After a few moments of snorting and shaking its head the beast turned back towards the duo, apparently unharmed. The beast began preparing another bolt.

"Looks like its hide is too thick for my magic to seriously hurt it," Aika said as she dodged the incoming attack. "What are we gonna do, Vyse?"

Vyse racked his brain for options as he ran._ I can't get close enough to that thing to use my __cutlasses—it would run me through with its horns long before I got close… Beyond stunning it for a few seconds, Aika's Red Glist Arts aren't powerful enough to…_ "That's it! Aika! Attack its face with your Pyri attack again! While its stunned, I'll hit it with my 'Cutlass Fury!'"

"I guess it's our only choice," Aika said. When there was a lull in the lightning attacks, Aika thrust out her hand and intoned her normal activation key: "Moons, give me strength!", and thundered "Pyri!" Another fireball blossomed on the monster's face. It roared in confusion and light pain, shaking the flames off just in time to see Vyse bring both of his swords down in a crushing blow to its head. Out of reflex, the beast loosed another bolt of electricity, the charge short-circuiting between its horns and directly through Vyse. Although it was weaker than the previous bolts because the beast didn't have time to prepare it, Vyse caught the whole of the attack and was thrown several yards back.

"Vyse!" Aika gasped, running over to him.

He was already struggling to his feet when she got to his side.

"Once more…just…once more and it'll be finished," he said determinedly.

"What are you talking about?" She exclaimed, helping him to his feet. "'_Just once more'_ and _you'll_ be finished!"

"Look, though…the monster can hardly stand now…" Vyse pointed. The attack had done a number on the beast—it was sagging on its stubby legs, and blood was pouring out of its wound in its face. "If I can hit it one more time—"

"In your condition?" Aika asked incredulously. "At least wait a second so I can heal you—"

"There'll be time for that later," Vyse asserted firmly, strength coming back to his voice. "Cast Pyri, now!"

Aika cursed something about meaningless heroics and yelled: "Pyri!"

The weakened creature crumpled under the force of the blast, its horns almost touching the ground.

Gathering the last of his strength, Vyse ran forward, swords blue blurs as they sped towards their target.

The monster anticipated him this time though—with a roar it poured all of its pain-induced fury into one mighty lightning bolt. Vyse's momentum was too great to be stopped, though. He slipped between the beast's horns and used the inertia to drive the blades deep in its unarmored neck. The cutlasses sunk down to their hilts, mindless of the tough hide and hard bone they cleaved. The electricity coursing through the beast's horns abruptly cut off, and the beast sunk to the ground. Vyse followed suit, leaning against the fallen monster.

"Sorry…I had to get rough with you there…" He murmured weakly.

"Sacri!" Aika called out as she ran over.

The air around him briefly shimmered with a green glow. By the time Aika got over to him, most of his injuries were healed. Aika grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet. "Now we're even, 'kay?"

Vyse pulled his swords out of the dead war beast. "Yup, sorry I kinda just jumped in there."

"Well, at least it over," Aika smiled.

"Almost," Vyse said, turning to face Alfonso again.

Alfonso started when he felt the Rogues' attention on him. He was in the midst of trying to figure out how to get the lifeboat off the ground when the two pirates turned on him. He straightened, trying to look appropriately regal again.

"Feh…It appears there is more to you Rogues than meets the eye." He pushed a button on the control panel of the ship and it shakily rose into the air. It jerked, and then zipped forward off the runway. "We shall meet again!"

Vyse and Aika ran to the edge and watched the lifeboat dart off into the early morning horizon.

"Darn! What kind of Captain abandons his crew and runs without even putting up a fight?" Vyse said, glaring at the retreating speck in the distance.

Aika grinned widely and poked him in the ribs. "He may have been a coward, but he was a coward with gold!"

"I guess this means the ship and everything on it is ours now…" Vyse mused, a grin appearing on his face again. He looked over at the girl who was still lying on the floor, forgotten by the cowardly admiral. "I wonder why the Valuans are so interested in that girl…"

"Besides the odd taste in fashion, she looks normal…" Aika wondered.

The girl's clothes were definitely odd. She wore a white dress, trimmed with a gold hem. Around her head was a gold circlet, and she had gold ankle bracelets as well. She seemed to be near Vyse and Aika's ages—somewhere around seventeen years old. Her blond hair, splayed around her face, was about shoulder-length. Her skin was white, as if she hadn't been touched by the sun once in her whole life, although it wasn't an unhealthy color. An incomprehensible rune was drawn on her shoulders and forehead. Altogether, she was pretty in a delicate, almost alien sort of way.

_Who is she?_ Vyse wondered to himself. _And why do the Valuans want her so badly?_

**A/N:**_ These notes are intended to expand one the mechanics of the universe in the story, not so much as info specifically on how the game works. Some things may even differ from the game. _

**Background Info:**

Islands and Airships

Arcadia is like our world, in that it consists of islands and continents, but with one major difference:

There is no sea.

Islands and continents alike float in the air, with nothing but air between and below them. Its theorized that the continents are held aloft by the moonstones embedded deep in their soil reacting to power of the moons above them to create a kind of magnetic levitation. Scientists have been unable to properly test this theory, however, because it seems to only occur on a large-scale. There is an old legend about a man-made island that actually harnessed this phenomenon, but it has been dismissed as an impossible myth…

All the islands and continents float within the "Middle Sky"- a region of the sky that is able to support life. Arcadia's skies are divided into three zones based on habitability: Deep Sky, Middle Sky, and Upper Sky.

Middle Sky is the only region where humans can survive. This is the altitude where the clouds roam, and the swirling maelstroms called Sky Rifts are confined.

Below Middle Sky is the Deep Sky. This altitude in a constant state of chaos. Storms cover all of the surface of Deep Sky, making exploration currently impossible.

Above Middle Sky is the Upper Sky. The air is too thin for humans at these altitudes, making travel impossible. Clouds are nowhere to be seen up here, with only a few small, lifeless islands drifting alone.

Using the power of the moonstones, the Arcadians developed a way to cross these skies: airships. Airships 'burn' moonstones as fuel to power the great engines which hold the ship in the air. There are many different ways moonstones can be used to power airships: red moonstones can be burnt to power an engine, blue moonstones can be used to create wind on a quiet day(to power sail-boats), and yellow moonstones can double as a battery for an engine!

Moons and Moonstones

Arcadia has six known moons. The Yellow Moon hangs above the continent Valua resides on, and the Red Moon above the continent on which Nasr resides, earning them the nicknames the "Yellow Continent" and the "Red Continent" respectively. Each moon also embodies an element:

The Silver Moon embodies Light, or life and healing.

The Green Moon: Earth.

The Blue Moon: Air.

The Red Moon: Fire.

The Yellow Moon: Electricity.

The Purple Moon: Ice.

Moonstones often fall from the moons and land on the islands or continents below. These stones can be collected and refined to be used to power machines or imbue them with the chosen elemental. Moonstones can also be obtained through mining deep into the lower crust of the continents.

A single moonstone can also be used to cast magic, or "Glist Arts". The more refined a stone is, the more powerful it becomes. Raw moonstones that have not gone through the refining process have very little useable power.

Nasr and Valua

About fifty years ago, a new king came to the throne of Valua. For the next decade of his reign,the people of Valua lived in peace and prosperity. However, the king eventually fell to the corrupting influences of such great power. He became greedy for more power and land. The king launched a surprise attack on the surrounding contries, overpowering them one by one and using their resources to strengthen his own navy. After five years of nonstop war and bloodshed, Valua controlled its entire home continent under the Yellow Moon. The king was not satisfied with just controlling the home continent, though. He now had visions of controlling all the land in Arcadia. His navy, now dubbed the 'Invincible Armada,' promptly took Sailor's Island, a small but prosperous center of trade in the Mid Ocean. The king turned his gaze next to the desert continent of Nasr. The land under the Red Moon, though, unlike the other unfortunate countries on the Yellow continent, was prepared for the coming attack. Seeing the Valuan king's press for land, the Nasrians amassed a navy to rival the Invincible Armada.

In a fierce and costly battle, Nasr pushed Valua back to the refuge of its fortified capital on the Yellow Continent. The thick, stone door of the fortress/capital, called the "grand fortress", resisted all Nasrian cannon fire. Although the Nasrians kept up their attack for several weeks, they never made any progress on those huge walls. The cannons mounted in the gates eventually picked off so many of the Nasrian fleet that they too had to call off the attack.

Valua had been delt a heavy blow- and her citizens, already dissatisfied with the war, had reached their limit.

Nasr had taken a beating as well- never again did it reclaim the glorious power its navy had once held.

Valua, its "Invincible Armada" completely destroyed, halted its campaign. In the unrest following the war, the king was assassinated. The Valuans hoped that the king's daughter, Theodora, might bring peace back to their troubled country.

And for several years, their future seemed bright. The Queen was just and kind, and Valua began patching up its relations with Nasr (although it still kept the nations on its home continent that it had originally taken). The fragile peace that had begun to grow was crushed when the Queen's husband died in an ambush on a diplomatic trip to Nasr. Although the cause of his death and who the ambushers were is debated to this day, the Queen blamed the Nasrians in her rage. She immediately withdrew her ambassadors from the country, and began building up the old Armada once again. Now, about ten years later, Valua routinely patrols much of the sky of Arcadia.

Although she has not declared war on Nasr, the rapidly growing new Armada, and increasingly aggressive actions of Valua, suggest that war is not far off.

Looking back over what I wrote, I figured it would be a good idea to give a brief overview on what specific Glist Arts have appeared thus far.

The first spell we come across in the story, is Aika threatening to use a Pyri spell when she and Vyse are cornered on the Valuan ship deck. Pyri is the most basic of the Red Glist Arts, and naturally, uses a Red Moon Stone as a conduit. In this case, the "blade" of Aika's boomerang was imbued with Red Moon Stone energy, so she was using that to focus the power. Other instances, like where a fireball erupts from her palm, follow the same idea. The caster first uses their magic-imbued weapon to focus the power, and then directs the magic where they want it to go. You can cast Glist Arts without using a magic-imbued item to focus it, as long as you have a moon stone, but its a common tactic for novice spellcasters to make it easier for them in the heat of battle.

The next spell we saw was directed at our heroes- Electri. As its name implies and you saw in the story, its an electric attack, powered by a Yellow Moon Stone. The actual chanting part of the fight, where the mages were left vulnerable, was actually fairly short, what made the scene feasable was that in real life, they would truly have been exposed. Generally, to cast a spell, all you need is an activation phrase, like Aika and Vyse's "Moons, give me strength!", "Let's try this!" The words aren't really important, it just helps you focus while you gather energy (video game terms: Spirit) for the attack. So, in that brief time while they were trying to blurt out their activation chants, Vyse and Aika were able to get in a few hits.

Sacri- we saw this one twice this chapter, and we'll probably be seeing it much more as we go on... Sacri is the most basic healing spell, healing minor cuts and scrapes and light internal injuries. The mage's attack was fairly weak, actually, Aika just took it harder because she was unprepared for it, so Sacri more than did the job. In the case of Vyse getting hit first with a basic lightning attack, then pretty much taking Thunder of Fury head-on, its a wonder he was even breathing. Luckily, Sacri took care of the worst of the damage, although it just didn't have the power to heal him completely. Coincidentally, that was all the MP Aika had left anyway, so that's why she didn't do more...Right... Harhar.


	2. Angel's Awakening Part 1

**Skies of Arcadia: Heroes**

* * *

**Chapter One**—"Angel's Awakening"

Shards of a voice echoed from her memory to her dreams, as if heard from a great distance.

_Fina…you…replace…Rami…Moon Elder…are…hope…Don't allow…trust…the surface…_

Thevoice faded away as Fina gradually became aware of her surroundings. She was lying on something soft, which was a surprise considering where she had last remembered being conscious. It was actually…soft and warm. _Maybe I'm in the afterlife…no…I'm probably still in the clutches of some enemy…I should probably open my eyes and see where I am now. _She slowly opened her eyes, fearful of what might be out there.

"Looks like she's starting to come to."

Two faces peered down at her, hardly a hand's breadth away from her own.

"Oh good!" The other one said in a voice barely below a yell. "How do you feel?"

"F-fine," Fina said reflexively. Actually, she felt like a sack of moonstones that had been carelessly lugged around all night and then tossed into a corner, and she thought she had a bruise on her head; but she didn't have the presence of mind to give them the full synopsis.

The two heads backed up to let Fina sit up , letting her see the bodies they were (thankfully) attached to. Fina's head spun a little bit as she sat up—_uhg, definitely not fine._

The one the first voice belonged to spoke. "My name's Vyse," he said. His voice was kind, and his gaze didn't seem to betray any ill intent. He had a glass eye patch over his right eye, and a long scar ran horizontally under his left. His hair was dark brown and hung down around his ears in the front but was neatly trimmed in the back. A red bandanna contrasted with his blue uniform.

"And I'm Aika!" The one on the left said. The girl was dressed in a bright yellow one-piece uniform that flared off in a daringly short skirt that seemed to contradict her innocent face. Her bright red-orange hair was braided in two long pony tails on both sides of her head.

"You're on board our ship, the Albatross—" Vyse said.

"We rescued you!" Aika cut in.

"Yes," Vyse said, unfazed by the interruption. "The Valuans captured you, but we stopped them before they could take you away."

"Th-thank you," Fina said. _Ship? Albatross? Valuans? _She wondered to herself. _Oh, the Valuans must be the people who ambushed me…_

"It was my pleasure as a Blue Rogue! " Vyse said, tossing a carefree salute.

"Um…What's a Blue Rogue?"

Aika's eyes grew wide. "You've never heard of the Blue Rogues?"

"Um…No," Fina said, embarrassed and wishing she had kept her mouth shut. She might have just insulted them, and the last thing she needed was more enemies in this place.

"The Blue Rogues are a branch of air pirate, I guess you could say," Vyse explained, seemingly not hurt by the girl's reaction.

"I'm sorry, but what is an air pirate?" Fina asked, since they seemed to be happy enough to answer questions, although she couldn't restrain an embarrassed blush.

"You were out traveling and you didn't know about air pirates?" Vyse asked slightly incredulously.

"I…don't get out much…"

"Air pirates are people who attack other ships and steal their cargo," Vyse explained.

"Oh, my!" Fina gasped, reevaluating her two "rescuers."

"Don't worry!" Aika said, seeing her obvious consternation. "We're 'Blue Rogues.' We only attack armored ships, preferably Valuan ones."

"We steal from the rich," Vyse continued. "And we use the money to help keep the skies clear of bad guys like the Valuans and Black Pirates."

"Yup!" Aika chirped.

"But Black Pirates—they're another story," Vyse said. "They will attack unarmored ships unprovoked, and are constantly looking for a fight."

"They're bullies with no sense of honor," Aika said.

"The Blue Rogues fight to protect the innocent people in their airspace," Vyse smiled. "You're safe in our care."

"Um, thank you very much," Fina said. The two teenagers called themselves pirates, but they didn't seem to be dangerous.

"No problem!" The pirate girl said. "So, what's your name?"

"Fina," she said and then flinched, mentally berating herself as she recalled the Elder's warnings. _Why did I give them my name? I can't allow myself to be tricked into a false sense of security by these people. _

The girl's discomfort didn't escape Vyse's notice, but he chalked it up to her still being disoriented after the earlier ordeal. "Fina, huh? That's a nice name. It's so…feminine."

His attempt to cheer her up was a massive failure. Fina stared at him blankly, having completely missed what he said during her contemplations.

Vyse shook his head. "Yeesh…you try to complement someone, and nothing…"

"Ahahaha!" Aika laughed. "You call that a complement? Looks like you have a lot to learn about women!"

Aika's laugh was infectious, and Fina giggled too despite herself. Vyse sighed helplessly at the fun they were having at his expense, but he was happy to see that Fina was beginning to loosen up a bit, at least. To tell the truth, while he could communicate fine with the opposite gender, he had very little interest in the intricacies of close relationships. Relationships and eventually marriage, in his mind, were something for the far future when he was "old" (as in twenty-four or five). As long as there were new things to do and learn and discover, love was not high on his priority list.

"Vyse! Aika!" a slightly tinny voice reverberated through the room. Based on where the other two teenager's eyes went, Fina guessed it came from a metal tube in a corner on the wall. "How long are you going to stand there chitchatting? Report to the bridge immediately for your duties, over."

"We'd better go before Dad goes off the deep end," Vyse said, starting towards the door. "Come up on deck later and stretch your legs if you want!"

"Nice to meet you, Fina!" Aika said, waving as she closed the door behind her.

Fina mustered up a small smile and nodded. Fina stared at the closed door for a few moments, then flopped back into her pillow. She suddenly felt really tired.

o0o0o0o

Fina sighed and sat up again. She had tossed and turned for at least an hour, trying to catch up on the sleep she had missed during the last night's adventure, but met with little success. The stress from the ambush, as well as the uncertainty of her current situation, combined with all of the curious new sounds and disconcerting motions of this new vessel had her mind running anxiously. Unable to think of anything better to do, and not quite ready to venture out of the relative comfort of her bed, Fina peered around curiously at the small room. Unlike the Valuan ship that was primarily steel and muted grays, the walls, floor, and ceiling of this room were made of some kind of wood that filled the room with a nice smell, and creaked occasionally if the ship made a turn or someone walked down the hallway. Fina noticed the faint sound of wind whistling by beyond the wall behind her. Getting up on her knees, she turned and looked out the port hole above her bed. It was blue as far as the eye could see, dotted randomly with white puffs. Every now and then, they passed an island—they seemed to be passing through some kind of relatively small, floating mountain range of disconnected islands. One island they passed at the end of the range had a pile of stones on it that looked like it could have been put together by man many years ago, but Fina couldn't guess what it had been used for. It didn't seem like a building—it was much too small for that, probably only a couple feet taller than her. She thought she could make out some writing on the weather-worn stones, but it was too far away for her to make out. Fina watched it as the ship went by, then brushed it from her mind. Her curiosity about the rest of the ship had gotten the better of her- she turned and swung her legs out of bed.

Hesitantly, she tried to stand. _Stiff, but no pain—that is _something_ to be thankful for… _She glanced at the door. _Is it really okay to leave? _"Sigh." _Why am I being so hesitant? They invited me up to the deck when I was done resting. I am done. And they seemed friendly enough... _She put a hand on the door to the hallway. _What do I have to lose at this point anyway? I had thought my mission was over last night. _Fina nodded, coming to a resolution, and turned the knob.

Fina poked her head into the hallway and looked around quickly. She could hear muffled voices from further down the hall, but everywhere in sight was still. Feeling a little more adventurous now that it was clear she wasn't faced with the prospect of communicating with anyone right away, Fina tried opening the door across the hallway from her own room. A tidal wave of delicious aromas was the first thing to greet her senses. The second was the dim glow from a yellow moonstone on the ceiling that provided light to the otherwise windowless room. It was also noticeably cooler, Fina noticed as she took a step into the room. Much cooler—fog rolled out of the room as the cold air in the room clashed with the warmer air in the rest of the ship. Fina realized it must have been some kind of primitive refrigerator, using Purple Moon Stones to cool the room. She peered into the nearest barrel. Sure enough, it was filled to the brim with apples! And in another was bananas, and there were vegetables in another, and salted pork in yet another. She stared in wonder at all the exotic food for a little while, and then tried to figure out how they insulated the room for a little longer. Eventually, she decided to move on, reluctantly setting down the apple she had picked up to look at more closely. She had always wanted to try solid food, but doubted even hospitable pirates would appreciate someone taking food from them without permission.

A few steps down the hall was another door. On it hung a triangular-shaped sign with a picture painted on it that Fina didn't recognize. The background was bright red, and in black was a round ball with what looked like a string coming out of the top. The tip of the string had an orange flame on it. The door was unlocked, however, so Fina stepped inside.

The room was a weapons storeroom. An amazing collection of guns—rifles, pistols, muskets, musketoons—lined one wall. On another wall hung lines of gleaming blades—mostly common short-swords, but there were also a few claymores, a rapier or two, and even a cutlass. The rest of the room was occupied with metal canisters of black powder and huge crates of cannon balls. Most of the cannon balls were plain black, but one crate was special. The cannon balls in it were made of some kind of heavy glass or crystal, inscribed with old Arcadian runes, and they each had a Yellow Moon Stone set at the center. From her studies, and the lectures her friend used to give her, she recognized these as special concussion rounds, used to disrupt any mechanical equipment in ships they came into contact with and temporarily paralyze nearby crew. They weren't designed to cause damage to, but rather incapacitate, ships, and her friend had told her that, due to the care that went into making each one, they had always been very expensive. Fina figured that this was probably what she had been hit by when she was ambushed last night. If so, her ship had probably already sunk far underneath the clouds.

"Oh! If it isn't the guest we picked up during the raid. I see you found our weapons storeroom."

Fina jolted at the sound of the new voice and whirled around. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to intrude, I'll—"

"It's okay it's okay," the boy at the door said. He looked only a couple of years than Fina was herself, so probably around twenty or so. He wore a red shirt with the sleeves cut off at the shoulders, exposing sun-tanned arms that were crisscrossed with scars already. He was armed to the teeth too, with at least two daggers that Fina could see strapped to his legs, a cutlass on his hip, and a musketoon strapped to his back. "Between you and me, I was supposed to be guarding this room, so if you keep it between us that I left my post, I'll pretend I didn't see you."

"Oh, thank you so much," Fina said, still eyeing the numerous sharp weapons he was casually wearing.

"Oh, my name's Luke, by the way. Luke 'The Raider'," he added noticing her wary eye. "I'm usually in the first wave of a boarding party. With my melee skills and my musketoon, it's my job to thin the other side's defenses as much as I can so the main party can board more easily—that's why I'm so heavily armed."

"Oh I see!" Fina nodded. "That must be a very dangerous job, for you to be so badly scarred so young."

"It is, I suppose," Luke said thoughtfully, as if for the first time. "But it's a rush, too—being out there alone in the enemy's territory. Spells or even bullets flying around you. Almost so much of a rush that I don't realize I'm injured until after the fight's over…" Luke laughed self-consciously. "But anyway, while you're here, I might as well ask—did you notice anything different about this room?"

"H-huh? Um…" Fina wondered, looking around. Other than the high quantity of explosives and dangerous weapons…? "Oh, the walls and floor are all steel, or some kind of…"

"Yup, that's absolutely right!" Luke affirmed. "This room isn't just our weapons room, it's also where we stow the weapons and ammo and other dangerous things we pick up after raids. It's reinforced on all of the walls, floor and ceiling with solid steel, so if we were ambushed on the way back, between the outer wood frame and the inner steel reinforcement, the contents of the room can't be easily damaged or blown up. It's a common problem for all air pirates, so Captain Dyne designed the room himself. Oh, don't tell people I told you about that either please," he added as a side-note.

"That's okay, it is quite fascinating, actually," Fina said. "Your technology here is very intriguing-if I have time, I would be very interested to learn more."

"Sure—I'm not the best one to explain most thing, unless it's directly related to weapons, but the others would be happy to tell you all about what I can't. At least, what isn't a secret," he added with a slight embarrassed blush. "Vyse—you met him just a little bit ago, right?-knows these airships inside and out, so you should ask him if you have any more questions."

"Thank you, I may just do that," Fina said. "Um, for now though, could you tell me which way the deck is?"

"Oh, I'd be happy to show you—"

"Um, I could not take you from your duty…"

"Oh! I almost forgot again," Luke sighed disappointedly. "The door out to the deck is just down the hall. The big double doors—can't miss 'em."

"Thank you, again, Mr. Luke. It was nice talking to you," Fina said politely, bowing slightly, and then headed off on her way.

"Heh, Mister Luke, huh?" Luke chuckled quietly, leaning back against the wall as he watched her leave.

o0o0o0o

The view out on the decks was enough to take anyone's breath away, but it left Fina particularly awestruck for some reason. For a little while, she just gaped at the blue canopy above and all around the ship. Brisk wind danced across her skin and tickled her hair. White tufts of…something hung in the air all around them, sometimes even getting obliterated as the ship stormed through them. When she had been flying the other night, it had been so dark she had hardly noticed a difference from her own home.

"So…this is the sky…huh," she said quietly. Looking down from above really didn't do its grandness justice.

The Silver Moon hung in the same place as always, a welcome sight among all of the strange new scenery. That, at least, was a small comfort for the girl.

Fina noticed the ship was rapidly getting closer to a small island in the distance. That _must have been the destination those two pirates had mentioned—Pirate Isle_, they'd said_. Not exactly a welcoming name_, Fina mused. She had heard countless horror stories about the violent nature of "Arcadians," as they apparently called themselves, and wondered anxiously what kind of city such a culture would produce. The airship drew closer to the island, and then went straight by, in order to make a wide circle. What she saw wasn't exactly what she expected—it was children playing. They were in a big group in a central clearing of the small island, chasing a dog and squealing loudly enough to be heard up in the ship. Not far away, women bustled around, hanging out laundry to dry in the midday sunlight, or just chatting together in pairs. The kids were the first to spot the airship, whooping and screaming in glee, trying to get the deckhands' attention. A few who had their hands free waved back, and the rest who were working the rigging settled for whooping back even louder. Fina smiled a bit at the sight, and even raised a hand to wave, but quickly used it to brush a few stray strands of hair out of her face instead. It may not have been what she was expecting, but she wouldn't let herself get carried away so easily.

"Hey, you're up," Vyse said, coming around to lean against the rail beside Fina. "That's our base, Pirate Isle. It's pretty, huh?"

Fina nodded, she couldn't deny it looked like a very peaceful little village. Much smaller and less…depraved than she had expected, certainly.

"We call it Windmill Isle around outsiders, actually, but you're in deep enough it probably doesn't matter," Vyse laughed.

"It…looks like a really nice place," Fina said genuinely. "Um…but where does the ship…?"

"Heh, just watch and see," Vyse said with a playful wink.

The ship turned wide and pointed its bow directly at the side of the island. Before Fina could voice any of her mounting concerns, Vyse pointed at the rock face of the island and shouted, "Look!" Three straight, hairline cracks appeared in the wall, and a drawbridge lowered to reveal a huge hole. The Albatross drastically cut its speed and slowly glided into the cavern, with some guidance from a sailor that had appeared on the drawbridge door. It wasn't until they were safely in the cool darkness of the cave that Fina realized she had been holding her breath.

"Come on—let's get off and Aika and I'll give you the grand tour," Vyse said.

o0o0o0o

"Weapons, armor, gold…Now _this_ is a great catch! One of our best yet!" A pirate said, one of a group that had congregated on the platform beside the ship that was picking over the loot from the raid.

"Tonight, we should celebrate!" A female pirate said, holding a bottle up high. The rest of the group loudly expressed its approval, rushing off, eager to start the festivities.

"Well, Fina, this is what we do!" Aika proclaimed cheerfully. "What do you think?"

Having never ridden on a ship before last night, Fina never had to adjust to getting her "land legs" (as Vyse had called them while they were walking out) back. Her slight nausea, combined with all of the overwhelming sights and sounds that made up the dark cavern that was the Pirate Isle base, made it hard for Fina to concentrate on the conversation. "Well, it certainly looks challenging…" she vaguely replied.

"Ahahaha—challenging, huh…" Aika echoed. "Well, now that you mention it, it isn't easy. But it's fun!"

"This is the underground port inside Pirate Isle," Vyse said, gesturing around himself. "From the outside, this island looks like a quiet, peaceful village. But here, underneath it, is where our headquarters is located."

Now that the dizziness had receded a little, Fina cast her gaze around the cavern. The cavern-port was truly huge, bigger than Fina would have thought possible for the small island. In fact, the extremely heavy-looking wooden cross beams and steel joints on the walls made Fina wonder if the island was really more mad-made fabrication than natural. Behind her, the moored _Albatross_ took up almost half of the underground space. In front, the wall was divided into three staggered floors that each had various rooms hollowed into its rock face. The whole room seemed to have a strange, otherworldly feel, of earthy smells mixed with sulfuric gunpowder, combined with the muted sounds due to the earthen walls and flickering torchlight.

"There are armories, shops, and even a tavern inside here," Aika added, although Fina failed to comprehend the meaning behind more of the words she said. "Come on, we'll give you a tour!"

"Vyse!" Just as Aika was about to march off, a stern voice stopped her and the others in their tracks. It was Captain Dyne, looking down on them from the highest floor. "Come to my office immediately…and bring the girl with you."

"Vyse…I wonder what that was all about," Aika said worriedly. "He sounded even gruffer than usual…"

"Ooh! Sounds like you—got—in_-trouble_ Vyse!" Matt the deckhand crowed from where he was scrubbing the boardwalk nearby. "That's what you get for jumping out in front of everyone else~"

"I don't want to hear anything coming from the guy who slept through the whole raid," Vyse retorted dryly.

"Uhg," Matt grunted at the painful truth. "Hey—I'm just not a night person…or a morning person! Besides, Dyne himself said I wasn't ready for combat yet!"

Vyse rolled his eyes dismissively and turned back to the two girls. "…I'm not sure, but we'd better hurry, I suppose. You know how Dad gets when we're late."

"Yeah…" Aika said with a slightly grim smile, a shadow of some painful memory passing over her face for a second. "Engine room duty…"

"Grounded for a week," Vyse shivered violently. "No sailing for a week…"

Aika bounced back out of her gloom abruptly. "Come on, Fina! It'll be okay if we give you the abbreviated tour as we go!"

"Yeah, most of the good stuff's on our way anyway," Vyse seconded.

"Ah—o-okay," Fina stuttered, allowing herself to be half pulled along by Aika. The people in the base were positively armed to the teeth—everyone her age and older seemed to wear some kind of sword or (rarely) a rudimentary gunpowder rifle. Weapons were stacked in rows by the walls and under tents too, the most notable being a huge canon emblazoned with the Blue Rogues' emblem. The atmosphere was fairly laid-back though; everyone they passed greeted them warmly.

"Okay, first is our little tavern," Vyse said, leading the girls through a door on the second floor. It was just a tiny cave dug out in the wall, but it was packed to the brim with barrels, crates, and other boxes. A table, already crowded with drinkers, took up what little floor space was left.

"Cheers!" The men and women exclaimed, clinking their frothing mugs together. One of the women took a long swig from her bottle and then thumped it down on the table with a satisfied gasp. "-Pah! Nothing like a good bottle of Loqua after a successful raid!"

"AYE!" The group agreed.

"Or in your case, after a raid, and after any other time of the day!" A burly man guffawed, drawing the others into it.

The lady pirate laughed good-naturedly along with the rest of the group, then asked coyly. "But, Timnus, should you be with the rest of us bums when you've got a beautiful, hard-working wife waiting for you at home on the surface?"

"Yeah! Yeah! You ungrateful dog!" A few people in the crowd added.

"Hey! There's nothing wrong with relaxing with friends after a long day's work!"

This seemed to win the crowd's favor again, and they sloshed their mugs together for another toast. "Yeah! To a hard day's work!" Dropping the matter, they turned to the more important subject of imbibing more Loqua and shout amongst themselves.

"My, oh my… They're as noisy as always," Aika laughed. "Whaddaya think, Fina? This is our tavern. They serve all kinds of drinks here, juices, sparkling water, Loqua…"

Fina raised her hand. "Um…excuse me, but what is 'Loqua?'"

"WHAAAT?" Vyse exclaimed. "Fina…you really don't know what Loqua is?"

"Well, um…I don't know exactly," Fina said, blushing. "But…it appears to be a really good-tasting drink of some kind…Everyone seems to be drinking so fervently, it must be delicious."

"Want to share a bottle of Mur Loqua with me?" The female pirate offered Fina, winking in a way that struck the girl as odd. "It's made from Loquat Berries and Moon Stones. Packs a punch and tastes great!"

"Nononononono!" Aika said firmly before Fina could accept, directing her back around towards the door. "We don't have time to sit around right now! We have to go talk to the Cap'n!"

"Why?" Fina asked as she was ushered out the door by the other two teens. "Are we not supposed to be here?"

"Well, the Cap'n is always getting on our case about being late and stuff… No need to get him even angrier with us…" _And Mable is _not_ the safest person to get drunk for the first time around… _Aika muttered under her breath, shivering.

_Yeah, I made that mistake too, and when I woke up, she and Timnus had smeared makeup all over my face and someone had pulled a frilly dress over my sailing uniform… _Vyse added.

_Where does she even GET that stuff? She never wears those things… _Aika added.

_I dunno…_ "HAHAHA, but yeah, Dad can get pretty worked up when he's mad," Vyse said more loudly to Fina, who was wondering if she should tell them that she had heard every word they said. "We wouldn't want him to have a heart attack, now would we?"

"Haha, you're so mean to your Dad, you know that Vyse?" Aika said, tapping him playfully on the shoulder. "Come on, let's pick up the pace. Sorry, Fina, we'll show you the other stuff later, okay?"

"Oh that's fine," Fina said.

As they walked, a voice called out to them from a stall built into the wall. "Hey Vyse! Aika! Check out my wares! I got lots of new weapons in stock from the raid!" It was a small man with a shiny, bald head, who wore dark glasses despite the poorly lighted cave.

"No way!" Vyse said, as he went by. "Your prices are robbery! At least give a teammate a discount!"

"Heheheh, no honor among thieves, right? Not a chance!"

"H-hey, Vyse! Welcome back!" A girl called out from the next stall over. "You should come by and tell me about your adventure later! I'd l-love to hear it!"

"Sure! Later!" Vyse called as they went.

"Ahahah… Erinn's still crushin' on you I see…" Aika giggled after they had reached the third floor.

"Huuh? Whaddaya mean _still?" _Vyse asked incredulously. "You mean she has for a while?"

"Haha you're so dense, about these things, Vyse…" Aika laughed, shaking her head.

"_I'm_ dense? Says the girl who—"

Fina listened to their good natured banter as they closed the distance to Dyne's office. The girl had never seen or heard anything like it in all her life. When she was with her only friend, most of their "conversations" had been her listening and nodding vaguely now and then while he ranted passionately about the "surface" and the "future," and showed her his dusty old maps he had found in some forgotten storage room. The friendship these two had seemed different though—both spoke to each other in equal proportion, and while their jokes were rough, they never seemed to hold any grudges. This was a new concept to Fina.

"Vyse and Aika reporting for duty," Vyse said as they stepped into Dyne's office. "And we've brought Fina like you've requested." Briggs the Vice Captain and Borris the Head Gunner stood at either side of Dyne, who sat at the head of a long conference table, adding to the formal air in the room. The expression on Dyne's face made it clear that this was a serious occasion.

"Hmph, you're a little late…" Dyne paused. "I'll let it slide this time, though. Come on over."

The three teens lined up just next to where he sat. Vyse and Aika had fairly serious expressions now, Fina noticed. She supposed they were as in the dark about what would happen next as she was.

"Young lady, I am Dyne, as you probably already know," he glanced at Vyse and Aika on either side of her, "I am the captain of _The Albatross_ and the leader of this whole group that we call the 'Blue Rogues'. There are some questions that I would ask you—will you answer them for me?"

"O-of course…"

"I've been sailing for a very long time, and I've been to a great many places, but I've never come across anyone wearing clothes like yours. What country are you from, and why were you traveling alone out there at night?" His steely expression made it hard to tell whether he was angry or concerned.

Vyse shot a concerned glance at Fina, but kept his opinions to himself. Above all, he trusted his Dad's judgment and knew he wouldn't make a rash decision about Fina. He just hoped that Fina herself was as good a person as she seemed.

"Cap'n Dyne, you worry too much," Aika laughed awkwardly. "Fina's just a normal girl—if you spent any amount of time with her you'd know she was a good person—"

"Silence, Aika," Dyne slammed a fist down on the desk and glared at her fiercely. "Being a 'good person', looking innocent…doesn't mean she isn't a threat to your safety." He leaned back and looked steadily at Fina. "I am the Captain here—it is my duty to protect the security of my family and my crew." These words were meant more for her than they were for Aika now, Fina knew. "If this girl is a danger of any sort to you of any of my men, I cannot let her live." Fear gripped Fina, although it honestly didn't compare to the fear of leaving home for the first time. Surprisingly to her, though, she actually couldn't hold it against him—he was obviously only doing what he thought he had to to keep his loved ones safe.

"B-but…But…" Aika stammered, and looked pleadingly at Vyse for support, but he was stoically looking at the ground.

"Fina…" Dyne said, addressing her by name for the first time. "It is your turn to speak."

Fina was silent for a moment, her gaze drifting to the floor beside Dyne's chair. She knew it wouldn't be taken well, but she, too, had to do what she thought was right.

"Finaa…" Aika murmured, trying to find something to say. Vyse just watched Fina and Dyne carefully.

"…I…I cannot say."

"Why is that? Is it because we are airpirates? Is it that you don't trust us?" Dyne probed quietly.

"No—that has nothing to do with it," Fina said, her confidence building as she heard herself speak. "I thank you with all my heart for saving my life. You have shown me nothing but kindness even though I have been nothing but a burden on you. I honestly never expected such kindness from anyone... But I cannot tell any living soul about the purpose of my quest. Even if it means sacrificing my own life, I must hold my tongue. All I can say is that I have no intention of endangering any of your lives. If you believe anything I say, please believe this."

Dyne was silent for a long moment; but then a smile broke his grim face. "Alright then. Heh… Looks like I lost this one."

A smile finally cracked on Vyse's face and Aika flat-out cheered and pumped her fist.

"I understand your dilemma, I've been in tight situations at the mercy of others like this before too" he added, and it seemed to her like her really did. "And I see in your eyes that you're true to your word. While that still doesn't necessarily mean that you aren't a threat, I see that you're honest enough that it's not worth pressing any further. You're free to go on the next merchant ship that passes through if you wish—we were not able to retrieve your ship—or you can stay with us as our personal guest for a while."

Fina couldn't hide the shock that was clearly painted across her face.

"Although they call us airpirates, and even we've started as well, we have a strong sense of honor. You don't need to divulge the secrets of your quest. Understand that you now have my trust—be careful you don't lose it." Dyne's last words were almost drowned out to Fina by the joyful cheers of the two teens beside her.

"Yaaay!" Aika yelled in relief, glomping Fina in a big hug. Vyse smiled in relief and patted Fina on the shoulder, casting a grateful look at Dyne.

"C-Captain Dyne…" Fina said recovering from the shock to do a half-bow through Aika's hug. "Thank you so much. I will not disappoint you."

"Vyse, Aika," Dyne said to the two teens. "Take the girl—Fina—topside and give her a tour of the village."

"Oh yeah! That's more like it!" Aika yelled.

"Way to go Dad, I knew you'd come through," Vyse added as they walked for the door.

Dyne's eyebrow twitched in irritation. "It's not 'Dad,' it's 'Captain'… How many times do I have to—bah, I give up for today. You're excused. Don't be late for dinner." At that he returned to the book in his hands.

o0o0o0o

"That was a kind thing you did there," Briggs said when the kids had cleared out and the three adults were sitting idly at the table. "But are you sure it was…" He let it hang at that.

"I have my doubts too, but I know at least two kids who would hate me forever if I laid one finger on that girl's head," Dyne chuckled. "And I know my people here in Windmill Isle. They wouldn't be too happy if I kept an innocent girl here against her will either. They all take freedom very seriously."

"I guess that's true, sir," Briggs replied. "But just letting her go without knowing—"

"Peh. Stop your worryin', Briggs, you old codger," Borris "humph"-ed. "We ain't law enforcers, and it ain't our job to interrogate people. She has a right to freedom, and dat's dat. We can take care of ourselves."

Briggs glared at Borris and was about to retort, but Dyne overided him. "Your worry is noted, Briggs. It's good you're always sharp on these things. But there's nothing more we can do right now. And Borris, leave him be, he's only being careful."

"Aye," the latter said, dropping it easily.

"Yes, sir," Briggs said, leaning back in his chair again.

"How many years do I have to keep telling you, Briggs, not to call me 'sir'?" Dyne laughed. "Borris caught on quickly—maybe too quickly," he glared good-naturedly at the Head Gunner. "We're not in the navy anymore. I consider us equals—the titles are just formalities."

"Of course, sorry. Old habits die hard, I suppose," Briggs chuckled.

"Do you regret leaving?"

"Absolutely not."

* * *

**A/N**: Ahhh no flashback coming next installment, although I may do a short/medium followup story later... This wasn't in the first draft, but I'd been nursing a backstory idea for Dyne for a loong time, and I figured this would be a great time to plug it.:P

As for background notes, if I do them this time, it'll be in part 2 of this chapter.

If there are any grammatical errors, or practical errors in my world design, or you just *possibly* like where things are going, please review. Constructive crits are also welcome, although I may or may not take them into account.:P


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